[Effects of hydro- alcoholic extract of falcaria vulgaris on pancreas tissue in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats]

Introduction: Diabetes, as a chronic disease, is the third leading cause of death in developing countries. Hyperglycemia and oxidative stress have been recognized as the main factors involved in pathogenesis of diabetes. On the other hand, the antioxidant system is the first defense mechanism of body against oxidative stress. Falcaria Vulgaris possesses hypoglycemic and antioxidant effects. This study surveyed the effects of different doses of Falcaria vulgaris extract [50,100,150 mg/kg] on histological changes of Langerhans islets andserum insulin, nitric oxide and glucose levels

Materials and Methods: A total of 64 male Wistar rats were divided into 8 groups [control, diabetic with STZ, treatment with Falcaria Vulgaris [50,100,150 mg/kg] and diabetic treated with Falcaria Vulgaris] [50,100,150 mg/kg]. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA, and p value<0.05 was considered significant

Results: Falcaria Vulgaris extract [100 and 150 mg/kg] significantly decreased serum glucose level [p<0.01] and improved the diameter of islets [p<0.05] in diabetic rats treated with Falcaria Vulgaris extract, compared with the diabetic group. Moreover, at dose of 150 mg/kg, the extract improvedserum insulin [p<0.01], decreased nitric oxide [p<0.01] and increased the weight [p<0.01] and number of islets of diabetic rats [p<0.05]. Histopathological studies also confirmed these changes

Conclusion: F. vulgaris can improve insulin secretion and serum glucose levels in an animal model of STZ induced diabetes, possibly by reducing nitric oxide production and preventing pancreatic tissue oxidative damage

Assessment of hearing standard threshold shift based on audiometric findings in steel company workers

Exposure of workers to excessive noise and its complications including hearing loss as one of the most important health problems in industries. Standard Threshold Shift [STS] is considered as an indicator for monitoring of the effectiveness of hearing conservation program [HCP] implemented in the industries. This study was designed to determine the frequency of STS and hearing loss in steel industry workers. 310 steel workers with sound level exposure to unauthorized noise [85 dBA or higher] that had at least 3 years work experience were enrolled. Required data were recorded in a questionnaire through direct interview. STS was investigated using baseline audiogram and audiometric evaluations. 22.3% of workers in 2008 and 41.3% of workers in 2009 had STS in both ears. There was a significant relationship between the sound exposure level and work experience with STS, while the relationship between age and STS was not significant. High frequency of STS in workers indicates unsuccessful hearing conservation program in the factory and careful implementation and reassessment of HCP seem necessary

Predicting and identifying traffic hot spots applying neuro-fuzzy systems in intercity roads

Providing safety in roads for the purpose of protecting human assets and preventing social and economic losses resulted from road accidents is a significant issue. Identifying the traffic hot spots of the roads provides the possibility of promoting the road safety which is also related to investigate frequency and intensity of occurred accidents. Accidents are multidimensional and complicated events. Identifying the accident factors is based on applying a comprehensive and integrated system for making decisions. Therefore, applying common mathematical and statistical methods in this field can be resulted in some problems. Hence, the new research methods with abilities to infer meaning from complicated and ambiguous data seem useful. Therefore, along with identifying the traffic hot spots, adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy inference system is used to predict traffic hot spots on rural roads. In this process, a fuzzy inference system from Sugeno type is trained applying hybrid optimization routine [back propagation algorithm in combination with a least square type of method] and accident data of Karaj-Chalus road in Tehran province. Then the system was tested by a complete set of data. Finally, the stated system could predict 96.85% of accident frequencies in the studied blocks. Furthermore, the amount of effective false negative in all cases included only 0.82% of predictions, which indicated a good approximation of predictions and model credibility

[Effects of aerobic exercise training on the mental and physical health and social functioning of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus]

Diabetes mellitus disease can negatively influence the physical functioning, emotional state, and individual, family and social relationships of patients with diabetes and, in general, their health and feeling of wellness. Caloric restriction and oral hypoglycemic agents also have undesirable effects on the mental health of these patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of aerobic exercise training on mental and physical health, anxiety, insomnia, social functioning and depression in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus. In this clinical trial, fifty-three patients with type 2 diabetes, age range 45.15 +/- 6.11 years, with average of 5 +/- 3 years of disease were chosen purposively and were randomly assigned into 2 groups, the 8 week aerobic exercise training [n=27] and the non-training [n=26] group. The aerobic exercise training group participated in an aerobic training program, intensity 60-70% heart reserve, frequency 3 days/week, duration 45-60 min/session. Mental health was evaluated using a general health questionnaire [GHQ] in the two groups before and after the study. The independent t-test was used for data analysis. The 8 weeks aerobic exercise training had a significant effect on mental health, subscales of physical symptoms, anxiety and insomnia [p<0.05]. However no significant effect on subscales of social functioning and depression was observed [p>0.05]. Aerobic exercise training, as part of a health promotion program, can be effective on the mental health of patients with type 2 diabetes

Determination of optimum filter in myocardial SPECT: a phantom study

In myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging, images are degraded by photon attenuation, the distance-dependent collimator, detector response and photons scatter. Filters greatly affect quality of nuclear medicine images Materials and A phantom simulating heart left ventricle was built. About 1mCi of 99mTc was injected into the phantom. Images were taken from this phantom. Some filters including Parzen, Hamming, Hanning, Butterworth and Gaussian were exerted on the phantom images. By defining some criteria such as contrast, signal to noise ratio, and defect size detectability, the best filter can be determined. 0.325 Nyquist frequency and 0.5 Nq was obtained as the optimum cut off frequencies respectively for hamming and hanning filters. Order 11,cut off 0.45 Nq and order 20 cut off 0.5 Nq obtained optimum respectively for Butterworth and Gaussian filters. The optimum member of every filter's family was obtained